Rather Hall Brawl

I've always thought that violence had one core intention:  destruction.  24/7 TV and video-game violence pretty well confirm that many, many people will wallow in orgiastic violence half their waking hours.  And, for the truly committed it seems like an all-day-every-day addiction. 

But, I'm an outsider; just not that interested in it.  Ultimatetly, watching college football is about as violent a thing as I experience in life.  Besides, I've never seen anything in pro sports that approximates the quality of most people who show up in Spartan Stadium, so I leave pro football and pro sports in general to those who like things a little angrier, a little more violent, and too often a lot more egophrenic , i.e., "It's all about me all the time no matter what the cost to you." 

College football and college sports in general focus on lots of goals and aspirations that go beyond our most base and violent curiosities and obsessions.  For me it's a place where a person consciously climbing Maslow's hierarchy can make a little sense of the world, whether or not you're an athlete. 

But, here's the deal:  How is it that so many young men on the MSU football team are so ill-prepared to spend four years in an environment where violence has long been a rare blip on the radar?  Why MSU footbball players over and over? Do we simply not know who these recruits are at any level when they arrive?  Or, are we  failing to transition them into functional levels of adulthood despite massive resources in the football program? 

Maybe inner-city deprevation, violence and marginalization make the bridge to East Lansing just too big to cross.  Or, are college football programs just one-dimensional you're-a-stud-now-go-destroy stupid boxes these kids crawl into for four years, just as the old stereotype always suggested?  Help me out here.  I just don't get it.